The Inquest :: essays research papers

Credibility and Conflict in Lem’s â€Å"The Inquest† â€Å"The year is 2029, and machines will convince us that they are conscious and that they have their own agenda worthy of our respect. They will embody human qualities; claim to be human†¦and we’ll believe them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  - Ray Kurzweil Perhaps Kurzweil slipped up when he put a date in his prediction. Perhaps he intended it to be more of a challenge than a guess. Ultimately, it separates the theorists, like Kurzweil, from the storytellers, like Stanislaw Lem. Lem’s â€Å"The Inquest† takes a glimpse into the future to show readers what it may look like some day. He uses a futuristic setting to examine the possible role of machines in our daily lives. Conflict, credulity and human nature are at the forefront of this story, all of which allude to deeper meaning in today’s world. The level of robotics and AI in Lem’s â€Å"The Inquest† is not farfetched. That is to say, the story is not unconvincing, but simply exaggerated for our time. Though the events are assumed to be taking place in the future, Lem references no time period and forces the reader to blindly suspend disbelief. The premise of the story revolves around this fact, and gives the story its body as a work of science fiction. The most relevant instance of computer exaggeration is in the supporting characters we meet: the non-linear officers of the Goliath. The main character, Commander Pirx, is known to be human, and must command a mixed group of humans and robots, not knowing the true identity of each. Here we have the story’s biggest assumption about AI in the future; that robotics and AI will be indistinguishable from human abilities and intelligence. This colossal inference about computer technology is only acceptable to the reader when coupled with the lack of a given time period. Pirx is asked to command these two groups on a routine space mission, all the while making inference on their actions and interactions during a variety of real world tests. He is then to make a formal report to the creators of these machines to be used as a formal test result. The fact that Pirx cannot immediately distinguish between the humans and the robots implies that all the machines have passed the Turing test. Though this story is set in the future, this test is a standard by which we judge the intelligence of machines today, and gives us some insight on the level of AI that Lem implies.

Thirteen Reasons Why: Personal Response

Reading this book was a moving and very emotional experience for me, being able to connect and heavily relate to the feelings and emotions of the two main characters helped me to understand every word I was reading. First of all, I really liked the Idea of book: a girl explaining why she committed seclude to the people responsible for it. I think the chain of tapes, forcing being sent from one person on the list to the next was a concept I found Intriguing and allowed me to stay Involved and crave more with each chapter.Just Like Clay, find myself wanting to now who was on the next tape and why-I loved Clay as a character and I really enjoyed the way he was written into the story. I felt like I was in his shoes a lot of the time, hearing the tapes through his ears and experiencing this journey alongside him. The suspense of each following tape was entertaining, I wanted to know which tape Clay would be featured and when his story was coming up, this gave me a sense of impatience.Each time a new character was introduced was a sigh of relief as it wasn't Clays turn to be humiliated, I found myself wanting what was best for him but also wanted to know how and why he was Involved In the death of Hannah Baker. There's something addictive about this book. I couldn't stop reading It because I desperately needed to know what was next. I felt kind of ashamed and sick to be this obsessed over a girls seclude story, even though the story Isn't true, thought of Hannah as someone I knew because throughout reading this book I had grown so attached to her and just wanted to gain closure over her death.Having spoken to other people who have read the book, I found our difference in opinions to be quite interesting. The majority of people who I spoke with thought that Henna's reasons to decide to end her life were petty and stupid. I think that to have that opinion about the book means you have strongly misinterpreted the point of the story. Having understood it extremely well a nd often related parts back to my own experiences, believe that Hannah had many reasons and although some very minor, we were not able to fully comprehend the Impacts and effects of these events much Like the 13 people on the tapes.I realized that the purpose of these tapes being sent eave consequences and can highly affect a persons life, much like they did Henna's. The tapes and their secrets were all connected and they were not sent out as blame or blackmail but as proof that you never know how much a person is hurting and one tiny movement has the ability to send them over the edge. I became extremely enraged in one particular part of the book. Tape number 13 features the school counselor and Henna's English teacher, Mr.. Porter.At a time in Henna's life where she felt alone,defeated and extremely depressed, she managed to build up the courage to approach a counselor about her suicidal feelings, she cited that she would attempt one more time, after being mistreated numerous time s already, to find some way to carry on. Mr.. Porter was her last chance and only hope of surviving and he failed to deliver appropriate advice or methods of dealing with these feelings therefore caused Hannah to make the final decision to take her life.This part really broke me and I was encountering so many different emotions from sadness, to anger, disappointment, I felt let down and unpeel like Hannah. I would describe Mr.. Porter as the cherry on top of the cake, a cake of really crappy experiences and retreat for Hannah. I found myself identifying him as my own past counselor's, not as useless but still very disagreeable and enunciating of my feelings.Similarly I was often told what I was feeling instead of being able to freely express my own thoughts, counselors often shove a symptom list idea of suicide down your throat and expect you to throw it back up in your own words. For teenagers it's a struggle dealing with suicidal feelings, there are few ways that you can reach out for help, and to find somewhere the strength in you to admit it is hard enough let alone admitting t to someone else, therefore when you try and get help and the results are useless, you end up feeling even more alone than before.This makes me wonder if Hannah was a real person would I be able to tell what she was going through? I wonder how many Hannah Bakers there are in this world, feeling exactly Just like her; like there's not a single soul here on earth who understands and cares for them; feeling alone, with no friends to share their secrets and problems with; thinking that there's nothing left to hold on to, so the only option left is to end their lives instead.She could have passed me by in the halls, or she could be there locking herself in the bathroom, muffling her cries, or she could be there in her bedroom right now, secretly wishing death would Just come and swallow her whole. I learnt from this story that you can never truly understand what goes on in a persons life and that even though they're smiling on the outside doesn't mean that the pain inside isn't unbearable The meaning behind the story is that one small action has the power to change a you're contribution has the ability to ruin someone life, possibly even end it.

Ad Reinhardt, American Abstract Expressionist Painter

Ad Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 - August 30, 1967) was an American abstract expressionist artist who sought to create what he called, absolute abstraction. The result was a series of works known as the Black Paintings, which consisted of geometrical shapes in subtle shades of black and near-black. Fast Facts: Ad Reinhardt Full Name: Adolph Frederick Reinhardt Occupation: PainterBorn: December 24, 1913 in Buffalo, New YorkDied: August 30, 1967 in New York, New YorkSpouse: Rita ZiprkowskiChild: Anna ReinhardtSelected Works: Untitled (1936), Study for a Painting (1938), Black Paintings (1953-1967)Notable Quote: Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything. Early Life and Education Ad Reinhardt was born in Buffalo, New York, but moved to New York City with his family at a young age. He was an outstanding student and showed an interest in visual art. During high school, Reinhardt illustrated his schools newspaper. Upon applying to college, he turned down multiple scholarship offers from art schools and enrolled in the art history program at Columbia University. At Columbia, Ad Reinhardt studied under the art historian Mayer Schapiro. He also became good friends with theologian Thomas Merton and poet Robert Lax. The three all embraced approaches to simplicity in their specific disciplines. Untitled (1936). The Pace Gallery Works Progress Administration Work Shortly after graduation from Columbia, Reinhardt became one of the few abstract artists hired in the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). There he met other prominent 20th-century American artists including Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky. His work of the period also demonstrated the impact of Stuart Davis experiments with geometric abstraction. While working for the WPA, Ad Reinhardt also became a member of the American Abstract Artists group. They were profoundly influential in the development of the avant-garde in the U.S. In 1950, Reinhardt joined the group of artists known as The Irascibles who protested that the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York was not modern enough. Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Hans Hofmann, and Mark Rothko were part of the group. John Loengard / Getty Images Absolute Abstraction and the Black Paintings Ad Reinhardts work was non-representational from the beginning. However, his paintings show a distinctive progression from visual complexity to simple compositions of geometrical shapes in shades of the same color. By the 1950s, the work began approaching what Reinhardt called absolute abstraction. He believed that much of the abstract expressionism of the era was too full of emotional content and the impact of the artists ego. He aimed to create paintings with no emotion or narrative content at all. Although he was part of the movement, Reinhardts ideas often ran counter to those of his contemporaries. In the latter part of the 1950s, Ad Reinhardt began work on the Black Paintings that would define the rest of his career. He took inspiration from Russian art theorist Kazimir Malevich, who created the work Black Square in 1915, referred to as the, zero point of painting. Malevich described an art movement focused on simple geometric shapes and a limited color palette that he called suprematism. Reinhardt expanded on the ideas in his theoretical writings, saying that he was creating, the last paintings one can make. While many of Reinhardts black paintings look flat and monochrome upon first glance, they reveal multiple shades and intriguing complexity when viewed close up. Among the techniques used to create the works was the siphoning of oil from the pigments used that resulted in a delicate finish. Unfortunately, the method also made the paintings challenging to preserve and maintain without damaging the surface. Black Series #6. U.S. Department of State embassy collections Despite the purging of all references to the outside world in his paintings, Ad Reinhardt insisted that his art could impact society and bring about positive change. He saw art as an almost mystical force in the world. Legacy The paintings of Ad Reinhardt remain an essential conceptual link between abstract expressionism and the minimalist art of the 1960s and beyond. Although his fellow expressionists often criticized his work, many of the most prominent artists of the next generation saw Reinhardt as a vital leader pointing toward the future of painting. Ad Reinhardt in Museum of Modern Art exhibition of his paintings. Robert R. McElroy / Getty Images Ad Reinhardt began to teach art in 1947 at Brooklyn College. Teaching, including a stint at Yale University, was a significant part of his work for the next 20 years until his death from a massive heart attack in 1967. Source Reinhardt, Ad. Ad Reinhardt. Rizzoli International, 1991.